“He was in his tent for like a week and the smell, that’s how they figured out that he was dead,” Taylor said. He’s afraid the same thing might happen this summer. His friend Mel Taylor, who was homeless last year but now has transitional housing, said during a record-breaking heat wave last summer a man in a tent near his died from heat exhaustion and no one realized it. He said the heat in his tent was almost unbearable. Nonluecha was less than a minute’s walk from a cooling shelter set up by local authorities but wasn’t aware it was open. William Nonluecha, who lives in a tent in Portland, sought out shade with some friends as the temperature soared Wednesday afternoon.

But anticipating more demand, officials decided to expand capacity at the four sites to accommodate nearly 300 people. Multnomah County said its four emergency overnight cooling shelters were at half capacity on Tuesday with 130 people spending the night. On Tuesday, Portland set daily record 102 F (38.9 C). Temperatures in Oregon’s largest city are forecast to soar to 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 Celsius) again on Friday. “For the next several days through Saturday we’re going to be within a few degrees of 100 every day,” said Colby Neuman, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Portland, Oregon. Portland could be on track to break a record for the duration of the hot spell, authorities said, as local governments and non-profits scrambled to expand capacity at cooling centers. The state has roasted since Monday and temperatures at or near triple digits were forecast into the weekend. The state medical examiner’s office said the heat-related death designation is preliminary and could change after further investigation. The deaths occurred on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. A fourth death was suspected due to heat in Umatilla County in the eastern part of the state, the state agency told KGW-TV. The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office said at least three people have died from suspected hyperthermia during the heat wave in Multnomah County, which is home to Portland. (AP) - Triple-digit heat was being investigated Thursday as the cause of death for four people in Oregon as a sweltering heat wave enveloped the Pacific Northwest - and the forecast showed no sign of letting up soon in a region unaccustomed to such temperatures.

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